Chromecast vs. Apple TV – The Fight Continues

Apple fights Google on a lot of fronts, smartphones, apps, clouds, maps and now there is new terrain for a battle. This new ground appeared out of nowhere and it had a huge grow within the last years. We are talking about TV streaming services, this turns your HDTV into a smart HDTV, giving you a lot of new features and possibilities at a relatively cheap cost. These new devices are simple to use and give your living room TV a whole new dimension with tons of useful features like screen-mirroring, streaming services and dedicated apps. Along with Apple TV and Chrome cast there a re a few more competitors to this market that are worth mentioning like Roku and Amazon TV, but for this time we will stick with Apple’s TV and Google’s Chromecast 2.

As most of Apple’s products, Apple TV (4th generation) can be considered a bit overpriced by some, but when compared with Chromecast (2nd generation) it has far more powerful hardware and many more features. If you already own other Apple products, like an iPad, iPhone or a MacBook it is by far the obvious choice, since it lets you take advantage of the AirPlay protocol and share plenty of video content from other devices on your TV. While in terms of hardware performance the Chromecast is nowhere near the Apple TV, it was vastly improved and now works with an iPhone as well, adding this to its small price, you get your obvious winner.

In terms of design, the two devices could not be more different. The Apple TV is a square shiny box that sits below your TV, while the Chromecast is nothing more than a disc shaped dongle that is hidden behind your TV and hangs from the HDMi output. But then again, the base design for the two devices is different. On one side we have Apple TV, which is designed to be the central hub of you living room TV set, with a lot of processing power, RAM memory and storage space and on the other side, Chromcast is just a bridge between your phone and your TV, thus not requiring any particular hardware specs.

Speaking of content, there is not much of a difference between the two devices, YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, HBO GO, Showtime Anytime, PBS, CNBC, and ESPN are just a few of the apps that you can watch on both. Even if, as before, the way the two devices load the content is completely different. For Apple TV most of the content can be found on iTunes Store and via subscription apps, and for Chrome cast, basically whatever you can find on the web with your phone, you can cast on the TV, along with the dedicated Cast apps and Google Play content. While with Chromecast 2 your phone is the remote, Apple TV now has improved its remote. It has voice commands via Siri and a brand new trackpad above the physical buttons that allows you better control of the device.

From my point of view, it is simple. If you already find yourself surrounded by apple devices, go for the Apple TV since it works spectacular with the other devices and is worth its money. If not Chromecast 2 is the better option since is cheaper, easier to use and works with any smartphone. .